So Like A Rose
by SweetAriadna
Summary: Rogue finds a way to control her mutation and her life has turned right side up! Well that is until the Ragin Cajun, Remy LeBeau starts dealing the cards for this Southern Belle. RougeXRemy & KittyXJohn. Read & Review.
1. Chapter 1

**SO LIKE A ROSE**

_DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the X-Men franchise; I just borrow the characters purely for my own (and maybe yours!) entertainment._

_Author Note: Welcome new and old readers! I would just like to say this is MY original story! My old account is Sora-Kaichou and I was not able to upload or revise the original work due to the fact I can't remember my email or passwords (ops). If you like believe me and rejoice in the fact that I'm back to finish off what I started years ago (at aged 13) and If not, oh well I'm still going to give you something original and better, so stay tuned ;)_

_* Italics within text are for thought or emphasis._

**CHAPTER ONE**

It was a Saturday afternoon, with the sun at its highest point in the sky. Rogue was by herself roaming towards the north east of the Xavier institute grounds, navigating herself slowing till she knew she was alone at her favorite spot. She approached a tall oak tree, _her_ tall oak tree. The only place in the grounds, that she felt a place of familiarity and belonging. For some reason she always thought that the tree had character, standing proud and solitaire truly without a care in the world from the rest of the greenery that was surrounding, inviting her to come and forget her worries…school, mutants, people, the fight for survival, and the worst of all her loneliness.

She moved herself to lay in the shade, created by the thick branches of the oak tree. The wind blew gently which caused a few leaves to fall, one in particular she watched, brown in complexion and slightly shriveled as it swirled around till it land on the tip of her nose. The feeling of the leaf give her a slight tickling sensation on her nose, that made her twitch it, till a secondary wind blew it away. She signed, as she lay lounging through her endless day, thinking of how ironic her situation was. The nature around her was so welcoming and easy; and yet her life was not.

She had been with the Xavier Institute for almost a year, before that she had once led a small town girl life in Mississippi as Anna Marie. She had a childhood full of love and happiness; it was only around her early teen years when the significant changes in her life began. Firstly it began when her mother developed a new relationship, the man caused her mother to become cold, strict and at times violent. After one night, she had approached her mother to discuss the unhappiness that the new relationship was causing in her. Even at her young inexperienced age, she understood that things were not right.

An argument between her mother and her happened, which led to her learning that the woman she had grew up calling her mother, had actually been her Aunt Carrie, who had took it upon herself to raise her after her parents had abandoned her. Disgusted, betrayed and confused, she had run away from home. Wandering a small time, till she was taken in by the Robbins, another happy time in her life till she had to ran away again, knowing finally that there would never be a return to a normal life.

Now with the students of Xavier institute, she had come to a place, where she had to stop running because there was an understanding. They all shared the mutant gene, unique to everyone individually but they were one in the same. She had started as the outcast of the group, but when the revelation between the relationship between Kurt, Mystic and she came alight. Friendship between other students and herself started to change. Kurt, Kitty and herself had become a trio of friends. But recently, with Kurt assigned to once of Xavier secret mission, she had seen a slow negative change in the dynamics of her friendship with Kitty and herself. Kitty had betrayed and lied to her.

Maybe it was jealousy she was feeling, that was slowly turning her bitter and making her exaggerate the situation. However, earlier in the day she had asked Kitty if wanted to drive into town and catch a movie, to which her usual pretty and always cheerful companion gave her a nervous response and mumble something about how she was suddenly feeling under the weather and rather just stayed indoors. Unfortunately for Rogue, an hour later she happened to come across an exchange been Kitty and one of the other girls Jubilee, who had recently became a Xavier student. Deep in conversation, the girls were happily excited and giggling. All Rogue could make out from Kitty was " please keep it a secret, okay and especially don't tell Rogue" before Jean Grey approached them and all three girls walked away together in union. Jean of all people, as well, the one who made her transition in the institute most difficult and had Scott eating out her hands.

Rogue wasn't upset, for the fact Kitty was making a friend (as she was always making new friends anyways) or evening keeping secrets from her; it was really just the fact that she felt that she was losing her. Kitty recently had been avoiding spending time with Rogue, always claiming that she was too busy. It not that she had come to rely on Kitty, it was just, Kitty was first of the girls to make an honest effort with Rogue, she never saw her as the cursed freak mutant outsider, but instead gave off the impression that maybe they were even best friends and was always wanting Rogue to open up and be herself.

Now all of a sudden that changed, and with both Kurt and Kitty's absence Rogue was less approachable to the other students making her lonely situation even worse. Rogue hadn't truly had a close friend since Cody Robbins, and she winced in pain remembering him and how badly that end. With the manifestation of her mutation, a friend lying in hospital helpless comatose and life in Mississippi once again left behind to protect the one closest to her hurt from her curse. Rogue sighed with sadness, as she pulled at the woven friendship bracelet Kitty had given her, remembering the girl's kind words.

"_Sometimes a girl needs a hug, I can't hug you Rogue but I want you to take this and remember that I want to be your friend and I'm here for you when you need me."_

It was really from that day onwards, that the dynamics of their friendship changed and Rogue really thought she had something with Kitty, possibly even the first female best friend she had in her life. Now uncertain why, Kitty had retreated and she was once again lonely.

Slowly taking a deep breath in, she felt a breeze blow a few strands of hair into her face, she tugged at section of her head that was platinum white, she considered dying it back to her natural hair coloring auburn to match the rest of her hair. But she slowly coming to like her unique hairstyle and while she started to let her hair grow out, she noticed that parts of her hair that was white, continued to grow on out white with no sign of any auburn roots. So she would leave it like that, different because she was different too. She twirled her finger around a strand of her hair before releasing it, taking a deep breath as the memory of that day which happened months ago, coming flooding back into her mind, especially whenever she let her guard down.

Rogue closed her eyes; to shut of her visual reality and through the memories of her mind transported herself back to that day, when she first met him.

Rogue stopped running, having no clue where she was. Maybe it was an abandoned shipping related facility, there were huge creates everywhere, making difficult to find the rest of her team. Rogue had been separated from the group as the situation had clearly heated and took a turn for the worse, with the arrival of Magneto newly assembled team. Were these suppose to be her new enemies, she wasn't sure but she was sure they saw her as an enemy just for being an X-Men, they were fight on opposing sides and they were not shy to attack.

Hearing a noise around the corner she pulled off her glove, her senses were tingling on alert mode. She knew someone was there, someone she wouldn't be happy to see, but there was nothing she could do about that. She just had to be ready to give them everything she had, if they had to play fight for survival, she had to win. She quickly rushed around the corner, to create an element of surprise to her opponent but came face to chest. A board muscular chest, she could tell, as his attire was skintight. She swallowed hard, lifted her eyes up to his face.

All she does was stare, he was an Adonis, his face very masculine and rough with facial hair but as if it was a beautiful sculpture. But his eyes were crazy, red on black, demon eyes.

"Oh mah." She let out in a rushed breath. The corners of his mouth slowly lifted up into a smirk.

Rogue knew her mouth was hanging open, and made no move to shut it, she felt frozen in place. She recognized him from earlier; he was with others who were attacking them. Gone was her warrior spirit, a minute ago she was ready to do some damage, and now she was lost in the black hole of his eyes. She couldn't drag hers away, as if they were hypnotizing her. She breathed in; she could smell him, cologne and cigarettes. She wanted to get closer to him; they were only a few inches apart. She wanted to get close to him, she felt that force all on his on and was pull her towards him as he was edging closer to her. Her breathing quickened, she was nervous how could she be like this with him.

She watched his whole face now, his lips were stretched in to a smile still, she felt him lift up his hand and bring up a playing card between their faces. The Kings of Hearts, their eyes were locked together as he pushed it into her gloved hands. Eyes now wide in surprise, Rogue held on to it and had it grasped between her gloved fingertips. Instead of him letting go, he slowly drew the card and our hands down, leaning in closer to her. He got so close; she could feel his hot breath on her face. Was he going to kiss her? Rogue eyes blinked slowly.

It seemed like almost eternity had passed before he let go of the card and backed away. He made a salute gesture with his finger, followed a small bow and then was gone.

This was when a slightly dazed Rogue, brought the playing card slowly up, staring at it in wonder. She felt a burning sensation on her fingers which held on to card and the type of crackling noise you would hear when sparklers were alight. It took her a few more second before she realized it was going to blow up. With all her might, she tossed it as far as possible away from her just as it exploded.

'_Why can't ah get this guy outta mah head?' _Rogue asked herself, as she opened her eyed looking at the darkening sky. '_Good gawd, what is wrong with meh? The asshole knowingly tried to blow meh up for gawdsake and Im acting like Im in love with him or something_.' Rogue groaned as she brushed hand along her face. _'But his eyes… It felt like I was being hypnotized. I can't get them outta mah head.' _Rogue closed her eyes once again to picture them. _"Ah can't even concentrate on anything anymore. All ah can see are his __**eyes**__, wherever ah go. Ah have to forget about him. Ah'm never gonna see him again anyway..."_

The sky suddenly thundered, Rogue felt a rain droplet hit her cheek, bring her out of her thoughts. She slowly sat up, breathing in the now cooler air as more droplets were escaping the overhead leaves protecting the oak tree was providing. She looked on out at the rain, before she slowly got up to head on back down her path to the Xavier mansion. When she reached a small distance away from the tree, something made her turn back and look on it. Rouge thought she caught a glimpse of something. But with the rain blurring her vision, hair, and skin clothes hanging heavy, significant dampen. She thought it would be better to seek shelter.

But if she had returned to the tree, she would have found that the joker playing card had been mysteriously landed out of the tree, where she had once lain moments before.

_A/N: Pulled on all my knowledge on Rogue and multiple X-Men series to support my writing in this chapter but future developments in the story will be taken where I see fit. I'm not a professional writer but I'm open to positive critique and comments, so please feel free to do so. Sorry for in correct grammar or spelling to lazy to correct after a while and I speak British English so…haha _


	2. Chapter 2

**SO LIKE A ROSE**

_Disclaimer:__ I do not own any of the X-Men franchise; I just borrow the characters purely for my own (and maybe yours!) entertainment._

_Author Note:__ Thank you so much to all of you who reviewed! I'm glad my story is being received so well. I really appreciate all the feedback. _

_Also, if I could just ask of you a little favor please? If you decide to favorite and/or follow, please do leave a review. It makes all the difference to actually know what you think about my work _

_Sorry it took a while to get this out, I wrote the chapter but it felt to typical to the point that it was boring, so I decided to explore something new, enjoy._

_* Italics within text are for thought or emphasis._

CHAPTER TWO

She pushed herself off the ground, stumbling backwards as she was barely able to stand on her own two feet. She was finding it difficult to breath; her ribs were heavily bruised, maybe even broken. Her body ached in an excruciating pain from head to toe, her eyes watered. Her hair was dull with debris, disheveled and stained with blood. The source of the blood started following steadily from her temple down across her cheek, she wiped it away. The rest of her face bore scratches and had swell up double it size. The injuries inflicted upon her was the consequential impact of when he had pulled down on her ankle from where she had been flying to get away and he had thrown her into a derelict building. That only should have killed her, but it hadn't, she wasn't normal, she had survived worse. She was out of her element due to the fact that he had ambushed her, injecting her with an unknown toxic substance that was causing her to hallucinate and making her incapable of have control over herself, her mind, and her powers.

For once, in the longest of time she felt truly weak and helpless, shuddering in the cold as she tried to make her way down town, moving as quickly as could even though her body felt heavy, working against her to surrender to her ill fate. But she had to try to gain enough ground to lose him; maybe there was a chance. Her last attack had sent him crashing into a car, but from what she had witnessed of his regenerating abilities, he would be up in no time.

Her superiors had assigned her on a mission, but it had been a trap, he had been waiting for her. She could not understand why, but for some reason she was the target. She glanced down at her self, her battle uniform, the one she had worn in pride, keeping her safe, an iconic image of hope and power to all who knew who she was and defended, was in tatters. Her eye mask, that was most vital in disguising her identity, had long ago been removed during the battle, making her feel vulnerable and naked. Her attacker was a savage beast. His appearance and behavior was undeniably animalistic. He had enjoyed with pleasure her look terror and despair. She could sense his pleasure in hunt, making her weak and allowing her to escape only to come after her again.

She had tried her best to fight him off, even with what her powers could allow her to do, her effort seemed futile as he just seemed to heal over and over again, no matter how hard her punches had gotten or how many times she had swung him into buildings or cars. He just seemed to be amused.

She bit her lip; her gut feeling told her something was wrong. She could feel her heart skip a beat, as she saw a dark shadow darted in front of her. He was here; he was hunting her like predator hunts their prey. His large claw came down across face, knocking her out cold. _Game over_.

Xavier pulled off his helmet interface, as the three-dimensional images of his mind faded portraying the kidnapping of the female mutate began to clear from spherical room. He had sense her outcry of help, and come to use Cerebro to enhance the connection between the woman and his self, as her brain signature was weak and muddle, with the final blow to her head, everything went blank. He, even with help of Cerebro could not accurately pin point her location, so any attempt of a rescue mission by his X-men was hopeless.

What disturbed him even more was that unlike the girl, whose identity was unknown to him. The face of her attacker was more than familiar; his involvement in the crime and the fact that his own brain waves were being protected through magnetic shields was unnerving, something was not right here.

"Hey Hon, the next one is on me, drink up…" An old fashioned glass, containing one of his all time favourite alcoholic drinks Southern Comfort, was poured over ice, and slid over the bar counter top to team up with the other one he had just finished. Southern Comfort never failed to remind him of the all the old good times in the French Quarter, back in little old New Orleans. This here was a true Cajun drink, no Cajun would deny that communities had grew close or disputes been resolved by cracking open a bottle of the stuff.

Gambit took a long drag from his cigarette he was holding between his thumb and forefinger; inhaling deeply till it hit the spot, then he exhaled through his nose. Before lifting his glaze from where he was sat on a bar stool, firstly his eyes a generous pair bosom that was purposely out on display. He had saw the barmaid undo a few buttons when she saw him enter the room. He gave her an appreciative smirk, and it wasn't for the drink. "Merci beaucoup, cher. You know how to treat a man… très bien "

The barmaid giggled, flipping her long thick brunette hair over shoulder, she leaned over the counter to lower her voice so only he could hear her. "One more hour hon, and I can show you how generous I can be with-"

She was cut off as the bar doors burst open with force, but Gambit hardly flinched, he could see from the reflection alcoholic glasses that were lined behind the barmaid, that word had got out about the little card _game_ he had played earlier in the bar with a few of the locals patrons. Un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq…_just_ five, that was any fun.

"Getcha ass out mutant, you ain' want'd round these parts."

"Yeah! This place here is for us normal folk."

"We isn't interested in any bull crap mutant tolerance, that the TV been hollering about."

Indifferent to the outburst, Gambit winked over at the flirty barmaid and took slip of his drink. She however was concerned, "Calm down boys, you know were good folk and we welcome all types here"

In frustration the youngest of the patrons pulled on Gambit's shoulder, and in the blink of an eye Gambit followed in one swift movement by twisting the armed used by the man behind the man's own back and Gambit pulled out card in front of him.

"You see here m'sieu, this card I used to win our game, non."

"Get the hell offa me mutant scum!"

"Ahh m'sieu, why you so tense? Relaxer…now pay attention here, you see my card. It is nothing, nothing at all" And to prove the point, Gambit charged the card, it glowed in an alarming sort of way. Now all eyes in the bar focused on the young man he had entrapped, the card and him, he threw the card in the air for it to explode. Gambit chuckled.

"Now listen m'sieu, Gambit only gonna say this once. Never touch the trench, d'accord" And with that last statement, he threw the boy back to his people, the force knocking him down. Gambit picked up his glass to down the rest of drink, before turning to the brunette barmaid who was now oozing out lust filled want from her eyes. She definitely accepted all types.

"Excusez-moi cher, Gambit gonna decline your kind offer." And with that he opened the bar doors and disappeared into the night.

"You fool!" Magneto exclaimed with dissatisfaction, "You were supposed to drug her and bring her _unharmed_. She is vital to this operation, when my orders have been given, you must follow them accordingly."

Sabertooth removed the woman from his shoulders, where he had been carrying her since she collapsed and placed her to lie on the examination bed. It had been fun to mess with her. He was perfectly aware how little of the injection he had given. But, so what? He had done his job. For who she was and whatever her purpose was, he didn't care.

"She is here, no big deal."

Behind him, Magneto had lifted his hand in his direction, fully prepared to knock out the arrogant disobedient streak within his lackey. He actions were only just to be stopped by Mystique, one of the most loyal to his causes, who had emerged from the shadows. He had not fully told her, the extent to which the girl was needed, him himself was on share. It was part of the plan.

Mystique spoke, "She is here, time is of the essence, and we must act fast. Her physical injuries can easily be repaired, but we must disrupt her mind immediately."

Mystique now shifted from her original blue skin into the mutant that was a crucial key in the plan. She had not understood why, but she trusted Magneto. Her now green eye menacing, she approached the woman and placed her pale hands around her neck tightly. Blue eyes flashed open in terror, staring back at her and heard before she once again blacked out. "Mah name is Rogue, and ah'm gonna kill you."

Rogue walked down the hallway, till she reached his door. She knew she had to do it, for some reason she had felt ready. She just needed his help. He was the only one who could; she had a theory and needed to present to him, what if she was right? It would change everything.

It was there all along, she had been doing it all along, unconsciously. When she had to keep all the personality within her at bay or when she had to use them, channel them. She was performing some sort of control. It must be possible to a have a full sense of control.

Before her gloved knuckles could hit the wooden door, he told her to come in, telepathically. She should have known he would have been awaiting her arrival. She twisted the doorknob and entered his office.

"My dear, you have been channeling you thoughts to me all evening…out of politeness, I mental blocked them out but I knew you would come."

The professor was sat behind his desk; from the beginning he had been patient with her. She was different from his other students, possibly could even be considered their most dangerous threat. She could touch him and who he is could be her.

"Professor, ah don't know if ah'm crazy and it's just wishful thinking but…ah think, ah think there must be a way to control mah power."

There was a moment of silence, the professor knew it was difficult for the young mutant, she was so very rare, even though her powers made her incapable to touch freely, with a simple touch, she could easily over power a lot of mutants. Even the night they had gone to recruit her, she had easily over powered his team knocking out Ororo and Kurt with her touch and mastering their powers to use against X-men, to protect herself.

He had been happy she had eventually come to them, under the guidance of Mystique and the Brotherhood the situation was dangerous for all was involved and most importantly herself.

"Professor, please ah think ah need to go into my own-"

Her words were broken off, the security system alarms in the mansion were on alert, she look around the room, her eyes met with the professor, she wasn't able to finish with her request, but she knew she had been heard. Rogue left the room to join the others; she knew her help was needed.

The professor reversed back in his wheelchair, frowning he followed the young mutant, to confront the situation.

_A/N: I hope that I have managed to keep your attention still! I'm sure its not what you were expecting, haha. Even though this is following my own direction, I hope you can see I'm trying to stay true to the way we all know love our favorite characters. Including trying to keep character's dialects readable._

_I will try my best to get new chapters out quite frequently. Have a lovely week and don't forget to __**review**__!_

_*I'm aware you might across some unintentionally typos with the written text, but without a fresh set of eyes it is hard to go over and spot my own mistakes. There is a point you also get fed up and just want to upload. But if it is causing too much of a problem, I will go over, and edit the work._


	3. Chapter 3

SO LIKE A ROSE

_Disclaimer: __I do not own any of the X-Men franchise; I just borrow the characters purely for my own (and maybe yours!) entertainment._

_Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews, favorites and follows! Sorry it has taken a while to put this through! To be able to comfortable write anything that would be remotely believable research is needed, and I have seriously lacked the time. _

_Please continue to show your support by reviewing, favouriting and/or following, makes a big difference (it was actually the notification of a new follower that got me writing again)_

_Anyways please, enjoy._

CHAPTER THREE

_**Past: 15 years ago…**_

The French quarter; heart and soul of New Orleans, the infamous neighborhood, world renowned for its high energy, rich and diverse history seen and felt in the architecture, music, street performers, jazz, lively nightlife and the finest art galleries and restaurants in the city. The historic neighbourhood was very much alive during the day, and by night transformed to every sinners' paradise catering to amusements and pleasures of many, whilst making it easy for the ones like him to make their living; the night did a wonderful job at shrouding the ugly, trickery and deceit that emerged and lurked from dusk to dawn along side the cultural beauty and attraction of the quarter.

Rue de Bourbon, was always his preferred location of choice; a restless street lined with bars all playing different types of live music, people walking around with drinks in hand and beautiful buildings everywhere. With the upcoming Mardi Gras festival, the influx of the mass crowds mixing drunken locals and tourist, the bright attracting lights and loud music, it was easy for him to blend in and maneuver through, he moved quickly as his small hands slipped out wallets of back pockets of tall males figures who were distracted throwing their head back in laughter socializing among the their group of friends or flirting with the local southern beauties taking in all the cultural delights that were on offer. He mostly targeted men, women have always showed him some caring affection or pity as he roamed helplessly and alone until Nanny and the Lost Children took him.

Pickpocketing certainly wasn't the ideal way for an orphan 7 year old boy, but life hand dealt him an unfair hand and it was his life, abandoned and rejected since birth and eventually ending up on the streets of the deep south due to his peculiar physical characteristics, many regarded him as a demon child and he was often referred to as "Le Diable Blanc" ("the White Devil") among the others. They were not considered normal either, but that's exactly what Nanny wanted.

He knew he was running out of time, he had to return soon he could only roam the streets for so long before his young presence would raise suspicions, but he was desperate. He had been punished to go without food the previous night, as his contribution was regard far too little compared to the other child criminal pickpockets. But the events of the previous night has left him quite disorientated and at a memory loss, he thought he had found her again, the moment was fleeting; beautiful blue eyes belong to a teenaged girl of brown chocolate complexion and snowy white pixie hair cut… had she come for him. He could see her smiling at him, reaching her hand out for him to hold, until the image dissolved in his mind into darkness.

He let out a small sigh and used his small dirty hands to push back his long auburn hair falling into his eyes. He was getting anxious, he surveyed the streets, he needed something worthwhile, his widened and butterflies fluttered in his small empty stomach when his eyes caught a glimmer of light reflected off a gold small pocket watch, before being returned to the pocket in which he assumed it resided.

He moved quickly, he had too, he was close. He followed the owner as they walked quickly through the street, weaving the themselves with command and grace, the hairs on his back was standing on their ends, this should have warned him but he was close and in the blink of the an eye, he knew would have the item clutched with the small dirty palms of his hands.

"Mon dieu, you're très naïf! Mon garçon, it takes a thief to catch a thief'

The young pickpocket released a small gasp, as a big hand encircled his small boney wrist as he absent-mindedly tried to slip his hand into the pocket and took a hold of the watch. His body stilled in shock, whilst his heart beat madly against his chest. He had never been caught before, he was quick, light and small enough to go undetected. He stood staring at the hand.

"To think you boy, could steal from moi, a king of thieves, jamais" and with that statement, the man tightened his hold on the small boys wrist and yanked him towards him forcing small dirty face to look at him.

"mon dieu! l'enfant démon"

Tears swelled up in the boys eyes, he had not started crying from the bone breaking grip of the man but from the man's outcry when he looked upon his eyes naturally painted with Red irises on black sclera and it was because of them that he faced so much adversity and torment.

"What is your name boy?"

Silence, the only sound heard was rapidly increased breathing of the young boy.

"…Speak quickly"

The boy was silent; words could not form to answer. He had no name, he had no one to care enough to give him, and only the taunts and name calling of those that despised and feared him as the white devil. He looked up at the gentleman who had a full head of long hair tied up in a pony tail that was secured with a thin black band, he face was strong and masculine, with a moustache which was neatly trimmed and decorated his upper lip. His eyebrows pulled together in frustration when he realized the boy had not responded to his question.

"What are you? Where are you from?" He questioned again given the boy an aggressive shake from the …

"I am le diable blanc"

"Why were y' reachin' in m' pocket?" he asked again, a little more gently.

"I was hungry." The kid was brazen. He needed training.

"You are a devil, and have nothing" The man chuckled to himself "mon cher, and I thought the power of the world was in the hands of the wicked one."

The boy looked confused and kept silent. He then felt his himself released only to be grabbed sharply at his small jaw, where is head was turned sided to sided and inspected. "Beau…" he heard the man say, before turned his face in the opposite direction and he lifted his free hand to click.

The soft mumurs of a car was heard, before it was seen coming out of the darkness of the street a white sleek expensive car approached them. The gentleman quickly open the back passenger seat door and easily moved himself inside to be seated before turning back to the boy who stood in awe. " Come, I have food."

Jean-Luc saw the potential in those gleaming red eyes.

_**The present…**_

The security system was child's play, he had bypassed and gone undetected for almost an hour, what a joke. Some many call his methods trespassing, he saw it as a type of art form and intelligence. The ability to sneak underneath someone closely guarded defenses and to recover treasures that lie within

Learning the skills, learning the movements, honing his reflexes, he was confident to say he was a thief, an artist of sorts, though the rest of the world did not see it that way. It was, where he had been, where he had come from, his training. It all came together to this.

He was resting non-chalantly, comfortable on a thick branch stemming from a thick oak tree, as he glazed down observing the auburn head mutant, _soon_. He mysteriously pulled out a wild card, decorated colors black and red in the outfit of a court jester and familiar to many as a joker playing card, he moved it quickly in and about his fingers, in a hypnotic motion.

He watched her, like he always did; a hunter always studied its prey. Deep in thought, it was only after the second thunder strike and the rain droplets were fuller that he realized that she had left and his hand had stilled which allowed the playing card to fall from him. He jumped out of the tree in a graceful somewhat somersault and knelt down to pick up the fallen card that was buried amongst it earthy surrounding at the base of the tree trunk.

He stilled for a second for second before he finally spoke. "I sense someone is angry, oui?" He felt the presence before the harsh snap of a tree twig crushed underneath a heavy boot was heard.

"You picked the wrong house bub".

The corners of his moth formed into a rakish smirk and it did not falter when clean sounds of the adamantium claws torn through it possessor's flesh when they were released.

"De name is Gambit! Remember it!" With that he began to charged his decker of cards and flip back to give himself dominant height up in a tree branch and a strong aiming distance as he began to target his opponent which hurling himself claws first in Gambits direction.

The battle of egos ensued.

_A/N: Random fan fiction notification prompted me to write this up quickly, not sure about it so many other go some editing. I will definitely will be releasing another chapter (asap), action scene are just difficult to write -_-"_

_Please continue to show your support by reviewing (including constructive feedbac), favouriting and/or following. Thank you_


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